‘Nokia X’ Android smartphone will be available in India from March 15

New Delhi: Nokia has announched the launch date of its newest phone ‘Nokia X’ Android smartphone which will be available in Indian market from the 15th of March, as the Finnish firm takes head-on the likes of Samsung and Micromax to grab a share of the burgeoning affordable smartphone market.

The smartphone priced at Rs 8500, is a four inch touchscreen dual SIM handset loaded with Android's Jellybean OS a dual core 1 GHz processor, 3MP rear camera and 512 MB of RAM and memory expandable up to 32GB. The phone come pre-loaded with apps like Maps, Mixradio, facebook and twitter.

As per the Nokia webiste, Nokia X also introduces to an all-new customisable home screen in which one can customise as per requirement. Resize and rearrange apps with resizable tiles, group apps into folders and get Android widgets for the things that a user may require frequently.

The Finnish firm, whose handset business was bought by Microsoft last year, had unveiled its Nokia X range of smartphones Nokia X, Nokia X+ and Nokia XL - powered by Google’s Android operating system at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on the 24th of February.

The copmpany said Nokia X will be rolled out (prices starting at €89 or about Rs 7,500) in Asia-Pacific, Europe, India, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. The Nokia X+ and Nokia XL are expected to launch in these markets starting early second quarter, priced at €99 (Rs8,300) and €109 (Rs9,200), respectively.

The phones are not pure Android phones but run a variant of Android. Nokia has taken the open-source elements of Android and added elements of Asha and Microsoft’s Windows Phone to offer its users a different experience.

Nokia X has already been launched in Malaysia for 399 Malaysian ringgit (about Rs 7,500).